Devon & Cornwall Police pledges commitment to proper vetting
Historical data published from UK-wide screening programme
Devon & Cornwall Police has said it remains committed to ensuring all its officers and staff are properly vetted.
It follows the publication of historical data from a new UK-wide screening programme aimed, in part, at identifying potential corruption.
Over 300,000 officers, staff and volunteers working across UK police forces have been checked against the Police National Database. The Force says it submitted the HR data of 7210 employees.
Devon & Cornwall Police says there were no cases requiring criminal or disciplinary investigation. The Force did uncover a small number of people working in the organisation requiring welfare support because they may have been a victim or witness to a crime.
Deputy Chief Constable Dave Thorne said: “The historical data wash is a key step to identifying information and intelligence and take appropriate and necessary action to remove individuals who should not work in policing. The Force has been committed to taking an open and transparent approach right from the start of the project.
“Although it is positive that the data wash did not uncover any individuals who should undergo criminal or disciplinary procedures, I do acknowledge that there have been an increased and unacceptable amount of misconduct cases within Devon and Cornwall Police in recent years.
“The vast majority of our officers, staff and volunteers act with the highest levels of honesty and integrity and any issue of misconduct is always very disappointing not only to the communities we serve but to those in our Force who always strive to act with the utmost professionalism while carrying out their duties.
“I hope this data wash provides some level of reassurance to our communities that we are committed to ensuring the highest standards of integrity that the public rightly expect of us and that we will continue to robustly remove any individuals in our Force that do not uphold those standards.
“We look forward to working with the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council and other forces to consider a longer-term integrity solution for policing which aims to alert forces to any new information about staff member in a timely manner.”